Explanation:
As northern hemisphere nights grow longer,
October is a good month for spotting auroras,
or even other
eerie apparitions after dark.
And this week the night sky did not disappoint.
On October 24th a solar
coronal mass ejection impacted
planet Earth's magnetosphere triggering far ranging
auroral displays.
On that night,
this dramatic silhouette against
deep red and beautiful green curtains of shimmering light was captured
near Whitby, Ontario, Canada.
But
auroras were reported
even farther south, in US states like Alabama, Kansas, and
Oklahoma at latitudes
rarely haunted by the northern lights.
Well above 100 kilometers, at the highest altitudes
infused by the auroral glow, the
red color comes
from the excitation of oxygen atoms.